Wifi sleep policy? Don't get it.

[Ticojpunk]

I'm not understanding wifi sleep policy. Not sure why you'd ever want to use it. 1 of the settings is to shut off wifi and move to 3 g when screen is off, but doesn't Wifi use less battery? Why would you ever want to switch to mobile data when you have wifi available?

Sent from my VM670

 

[anthonycr]

I think wifi uses more battery....but I could be wrong.

 

[riggerman]

While actively using it, wifi uses less battery than 3g, however, on standby (turned on, but not using it) wifi will use more battery to maintain the connection. To save battery, use wifi whenever possible but turn it off when not in use.

 

[Retorrent]

Make sure to have the policy set to never sleep when you are using it. If its set to turn off when the screen is off it only uses more juice because it has to reconnect and start up every time. If your in a spot that has no open wifi or none at all its best to turn it off all together.

 

[Ticojpunk]

Make sure to have the policy set to never sleep when you are using it. If its set to turn off when the screen is off it only uses more juice because it has to reconnect and start up every time. If your in a spot that has no open wifi or none at all its best to turn it off all together.

This is how I manage it now. When I'm home, with Wifi, I leave Wifi on constantly. If I'm going out, I shut off Wifi and 3G takes over.

Is there any reason I should be letting Wifi sleep with the screen off at home? The thingies hate is if I'm signed in to Meebo IM it'll disconnect when its switching back and forth between Wifi and 3G.

Sent from my VM670

 

[Retorrent]

This is how I manage it now. When I'm home, with Wifi, I leave Wifi on constantly. If I'm going out, I shut off Wifi and 3G takes over.

Is there any reason I should be letting Wifi sleep with the screen off at home? The thingies hate is if I'm signed in to Meebo IM it'll disconnect when its switching back and forth between Wifi and 3G.

Sent from my VM670

No reason to let it sleep with the screen of because the minute you touch it it has to start the whole process of connecting to the wifi getting an IP address and in the process sucks up more battery each time it dose that compared to just letting it connect once and leaving it on.

Look at it this way, its takes more energy to move car from a dead stop each time then it dose to maintain the same speed when its already moving which is why cars get better mileage on the highway then on the surface streets. Well its the same with your phone.

 

[Ticojpunk]

That's what I thought, which makes me once again wondering what the benefit of a wifi sleep policy has in the first place. And it's strange that it's on by default out of the box. I was wondering the first few days I had my phone why the wifi was dropping every time I **** off the screen.

 

[kobe24b]

Where can you control if the wifi turns off when screen is off?

 

[danieljc1]

Where can you control if the wifi turns off when screen is off?

goto settings > wireless & network settings > wi-fi settings, then push menu button, select Advanced, then you'll see wi-fi sleep ploicy.

 

[Whyzor]

If wifi is turned on and the sleep policy says to put it to sleep when screen is off, it won't fallback to 3G for data in the background, it will simply not have data. If wifi was off, then 3G data will be used in the background.

 

[zedorda]

No reason to let it sleep with the screen of because the minute you touch it it has to start the whole process of connecting to the wifi getting an IP address and in the process sucks up more battery each time it dose that compared to just letting it connect once and leaving it on.

Look at it this way, its takes more energy to move car from a dead stop each time then it dose to maintain the same speed when its already moving which is why cars get better mileage on the highway then on the surface streets. Well its the same with your phone.

This is only correct with crappy wifi routers and/or cheap. There are many newer and better models with the "sleep" function actually working like my own. I run a D-Link router and when any of my wifi devices go into "sleep mode" they retain all the connection details. (WEP doesnt support "sleep" you have to use WPA2 or above) I have a printer, a file server, a bluetooth PAN hub, and 4 android devices that all "sleep" fine without needing to reestablish their connect each time.

Now for the reality of the subject. Wifi in no way uses more energy connecting than during static connection. It uses energy constantly bc wifi is constantly checking and maintaining its connection. If u leave wifi connected but without any use or load to it it will drain power at nearly double the rate of 3G without load but Wifi with full load transfer does 10-20 times more work at less energy than a 3G connection at fully load transfer.

So conclusion is if u are going to be using data wifi is best if ur not planning to use data but want a connection so u can be able to be reached through data 3G is best.

for best power use
low to no use = 3G
high use = WIFI

 

[Eollie]

So conclusion is if u are going to be using data wifi is best if ur not planning to use data but want a connection so u can be able to be reached through data 3G is best.

for best power use
low to no use = 3G
high use = WIFI

This is why amazon requires certain games be downloaded via wifi. They dont want people *****ing about battery drain.